Mage Tower (Assault, VIII)

From the outset, take Niall's advice, and search his nearby corpse for the item he was carrying, called the Litany of Andralla. It's an important item to have with you, especially if you want to take the side of the mages in the upcoming final battle here (yes -- you get to choose whether you side with the mages or the Templars). The only way out of this room is via a nearby door. Be sure to scour the dead body en route, and prepare for a series of manageable battles coming up hereafter, as you swing through the door and proceed leftward. There should be no worries here, whatsoever, about getting lost, as there's really only one direction you can continue towards at any given time.

The first two battles you'll encounter will be interesting ones, simply because you'll wonder how such enemies even got to the tower in the first place. First, you'll encounter a lone Drake. These middle-of-the-road dragon enemies are easy enough to fell. If you're following our walkthrough to a tee, then you would have already run into these guys en masse during your journey to get the sacred ashes, and you would have fought many more than just one at a time. So if you survived those battles, then you'll easily slay the Drake you encounter here. In the following room, you'll be assaulted by a good six or eight Dragonlings. Just like with the Drake, you encountered Dragonlings during your quest to get the sacred ashes, and they are still easy fodder for your sword, just like they were earlier on. Though you may be inundated and overwhelmed by their numbers, they are all but incapable of doing any tangible damage to you, unless you give them plenty of time to whittle down your health.

As you work your way through the next corridor, with rooms shooting off of it, you'll run into a series of dangerous Abominations. If you remain stagnant during these battles, and let the initial wave of enemies come towards you, you'll actually be able to segregate enemies from one another, since some are waiting in the nearby rooms for you. If you run around wildly during this battle, you'll combine all of the waves of enemies here, thus complicating your situation immensely. So if you're able to, stay still and let the enemies come to you, and then work out from there to clean up the scraps. Be sure to collect items in nearby treasure chests and the like, as well as off of fallen enemies. Our reminders to do these things are becoming more scarce, no doubt, but you should be well-aware that that's what you need to do at this deep, late point in the game.

Things will seem awkwardly quiet in the next room. Of course, it doesn't take much to realize that this is a trap, and when you walk across the seemingly-vacant room to access the door on the far side, you'll be assaulted by a powerful group of enemies. This battle can actually be quite taxing on you, so you're going to want to fight wisely, healing your characters whenever they need help. The Shades, Lesser Demons and Greater Demons you fight at once here are a formidable team, so try to concentrate on killing the strongest enemies first, and then work your way down from there (of course, in the heat of battle, this is far easier said than done). When all is said and done, grab any treasure in this room, and then push into the last unexplored room on this floor. We're about to wrap this story arc up.